The Poetics of Legalism: Ovid and Claudian on the Rape of Proserpina

Abstract:In his versions of the rape of Proserpina, Ovid appeals to his contemporary reader by poetically playing with the rhetoric and law of the Augustan age—a practice defined as a “poetics of legalism” in this article. In his late antique epic, Claudian follows an Ovidian model, continuing the legalistic treatment of the myth and submitting his characters to Constantinian raptus marriage legislation that would resonate with his contemporary reader. The continuity of a poetics of legalism present in the rapes of Proserpina illustrates the interconnected dynamics of law and poetry in the mythopoesis of Augustan and late antique literature.